Just for Laughs merciless hilarity
The Just for Laughs 2019 show at Kelowna Community Theatre on Wednesday was a stark reminder of how much we miss Rick Mercer.
Following the 15th and final season of the incredibly popular Rick Mercer Report, his fans haven't had their weekly half-hour fix for many months. His Canadian television comedy series which aired on CBC Television from 2004 to 2018 became a staple for those needing a guaranteed laugh.
The 18th edition of the Just for Laughs Tour, titled Just For Laughs Comedy Night in Canada, provided exactly that. It was so badly needed that a second Kelowna show was added on Thursday night due to overwhelming demand and quickly sold out.
Launched in 2004 as Rick Mercer’s Monday Report, or simply Monday Report, his TV show combined news parody, sketch comedy, visits to interesting places across Canada, and satirical editorials, often involving Canadian politics, a format similar to satirical news shows like Mercer’s prior series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
The format was obviously different for five of Canada’s best standupss — including Ali Hassan, Debra DiGiovanni, Sophie Buddle and Ivan Decker — but the result was the same: two-and-a-half hours of non-stop laughter.
As host, Mercer was mercilless in his commentary on the recent national election: “After that election, you need a good laugh.”
The public’s reaction to a minority Liberal government: “Well, that election was awful. Let’s do it again in six months.”
And then, there was the black-face scandal — “none of us saw that coming,” he joked. The strategy of the national Liberal organization: “He’s not recist; he’s dumb, too dumb to be racist. OMG, that’s what they came up with?” If Trudeau was racist, he could be disqualified but “If he was dumb, that put him in the middle of the pack.”
An equal opportunity humourist, Mercer turned his attention to Conservative leader Andrew Scheer who surprised voters by revealing he has dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.
“Have you ever met an American who didn’t tell you that he was American?” asked Mercer, joking that Scheer could still be drafted (if the U.S. draft was re-introduced).
Mercer noted the tour’s first day off was in Kelowna where he learned: “A nice bottle of Okanagan wine pairs nicely with another bottle of Okanagan wine.”
Hassan, host of CBC and Sirius XM’s Laugh Out Loud program, noted the EastWest division caused by the federeal election, adding: “We can’t even get Kelowna and West Kelowna to get along.” UN peacekeepers patrolling the border, he questioned.
Trudeau’s black-face photos meant “I see myself represented in the prime minister as a brown man,” said Hassan whose family came to Canada from Pakistan.
Of his four children, “I love three of them. It’s not a law. My three-year-old is a sack of s--t. If I’m not loving him, that’s on him.”
That child regularly wants to know: “What time is it?” even though he doesn’t yet completely comprehend the concept. “I have your calendar. You have a measles shot in April,” responds his father.
The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Gemini Award-winning comedian Debra DiGiovanni who was introduced by Mercer as “a whirlwind” who just joined the tour from her home in Los Angeles.
She joked that while on tour, “you can do anything you want” in hotel rooms. “Sometimes, I dry off with the curtains,” she joked while demonstrating her drying-off technique.
Her rapid-fire technique was so intense that you had to listen carefully to catch all the jokes inspersed with funny asides. “I like younger men. That’s not a joke. I’m just putting it out there,” she said with a laugh.
The second half of the shown began with a second playing of the Trooper recording of Raise A Little Hell, then Mercer re-telling one of his favourite stories about the late Pierre Berton demonstrating how to roll a marijuana joint for Celebrity Tips on the Rick Mercer Report. The segment, taped at Berton’s home, ended with the comment: “Leave the weed.”
Buddle, runner-up in SiriusXm’s Top Comic Competition, got a ton of laughs when she told the story about asking her boyfriend if he had any sexual fantasies. When he said: “A schoolgirl,” she tried to act like a schoolgirl, complete with pigtails. His responded he was fantasizing about her going back to school for more education.
Decker, 2018 Juno Award winner for Comedy Album of the Year, admitted he doesn’t known how to cook which meant, of course, he didn’t know how to go shopping. It turns out grocery stores separate all the ingredients “and spreasd the pieces all over the store.”
Of note, Just For Laughs is donating one dollar, less applicable taxes, from every ticket sold for Just For Laughs Comedy Night in Canada to Movember Canada to support men’s health.